Possible Solution to Knee Pain

Specifically those who are suffering from osteoarthritis. As the study illustrates (included below) they found that improved muscle power was a better predictor/indicator of reducing or preventing the pain and effects of osteoarthritis. Having strong legs is, according to them, not enough by itself. To avoid making this overly complicated and getting lost in trying to explain the differences between strength and power and also not forgetting the two are highly related. We will use the Russians definition. What we describe as power in sport/strength training, the Russians simply referred to it as speed strength. As in how fast can you move said weight. Therefore, it is not only enough to push said resistance, but also be able to do so relatively quickly.

Power/Speed strength, is also a function of exertion and how much force you are able to generate. A good example would be watching power lifters do heavy squats or bench presses. If they are pushing 500lbs, they may be pushing it as hard and as fast as they can, but because of how heavy 500lbs is, it may not travel all that fast.

So now knowing these things we can actually tweak, or more aptly, reinforce Arthur Jones’s and Dr. McGuff’s approach to strength training. The trick will be that as you do a set, in the spirit of keeping yourself safe and not causing more harm to the joints, begin under control and moving the weight reasonably slowly, as in 3-5 seconds up, 3-5 seconds down etc. But as you become fatigued, you will have to push harder and try and push faster in order to keep going. This will, if you really focus and push to failure, put you in a great position. Though the movement will not be unsafely rapid, but still slow, you will in fact be training power because of how much force, because of fatigue, you will be trying to exert just to get the bar to move for those final few reps.